German foreign minister visits junta-occupied Donbass

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier will visit Kramatorsk in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, the German foreign ministry has announced. Earlier on Wednesday, the deputy commander of the Donetsk People’s Republic operative command, Eduard Basurin, stated that the situation in Donbass has sharply deteriorated.

Even based on this extremely limited information, the conclusion can be drawn that the Western members of the “Normandy Four” are taking a unilateral position in support of Kiev. The French foreign minister, however, was not such a hypocrite and limited his trip only to Kiev.

Steinmeier’s visit to Kramatorsk in the rear represents a cheap re-enactment of attempts at an “objective analysis of the situation” in the conflict zone. In fact, he is guaranteed to see nothing but a costume play and “peacekeeping” prop put on by the Kiev government with no opportunity to meet reality. Ahead of his visit, the Kiev junta will prepare a small exhibition of “the barbaric shelling of Ukrainian territory by Russian terrorists.”

In fact, nothing is stopping Steinmeier from, at least for the sake of a semblance of balanced approach, going to Donetsk or Lugansk as well. The authorities would surely consent to such a visit and ensure that he is a highly-valued guest with complete security. This would not even affect the status of the unrecognized republics, because Germany, a member of the Normandy Four, is already participating in the Minsk negotiations with the LPR and DPR.

But in this case, Steinmeier would inevitably be forced to listen to the unpleasant opinions of local residents on the daily artillery shelling of their cities by the junta’s punishers. This absolutely does not fit into the ideal picture of the world which the West draws in which “white and fluffy” Kiev authorities have to worry about horrifically suffering from “Russian aggression.”

The behavior of the German minister speaks to the lack of a serious interest on Berlin’s part in achieving a just and lasting peace on Ukrainian land. On the contrary, it confirms Germany’s strict adherence to tailing US foreign policy which, in turn, has encouraged their Kiev lackeys to torpedo the Minsk Agreements and prepare for a new round of bloodshed in Donbass.

Alas, the state independence of Germany as the largest European power is once again put into well-founded doubt in the light of this simulated “peacekeeping.”